CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Lindsey Durlacher liked his national championship chances so much Saturday, he'd already gone ahead and planned the celebration a day in advance.

He was going to make those thousands of Iowa crazies "my fans." Going to take a victory lap or two around the Uni Dome's rubber mat. Going to wave to the crowd, going to dance a jig, going to love every minute of it.

"I really felt I would win, going into this match," a bummed-out Durlacher said. "It would have been such a great accomplishment for me to win this tournament."

But like most of the weekend for Mark Johnson's University of Illinois wrestling team, things didn't pan out quite as planned at Saturday's NCAA Championships.

The fifth-seeded Durlacher, who pretty much guaranteed victory after taking out the top 118-pound dog the day before, fell 5-4 in the final to Jesse Whitmer of Iowa.

Whitmer had all but a few rows of an NCAA-record crowd of 17,436 on his side.

"It's just really not too cool with them having all their fans here," Durlacher said moments after his final collegiate match. "A little distracting when everybody's cheering real loud for the other guy."

"I never counted him out," Johnson said. "I always believed it was possible for him to win a national championship."

No champs and no team trophy, but three All-Americans for the UI, giving Johnson nine in five years as head man.

Durlacher, so honored for the second time in as many years, joined Ernest Benion (third, 158 pounds) and junior Eric Siebert (fifth, 150) in the UI's 1997 All-America club.

"Still would have been nice to have a champ, though," Durlacher said.

Funny it was Durlacher who turned in ninth-place Illinois' finest finish. Durlacher, the scrawny kid from Buffalo Grove who used to get the stuffing knocked out of him not so long ago. Durlacher, who went 8-22 as a freshman. Durlacher, who stands 5 feet, 3 inches small.

"For a kid that came in here undersized ... that nobody thought would ever amount to much of a collegiate wrestler ... for him to end up second, it's just amazing," Johnson said.

Durlacher, fourth in his class a year ago, finished 3-1 for the tournament, 32-8 for the year.

Whitmer said he was motivated by Durlacher's boast that the title was his.

"He shot his mouth off in the paper. I didn't appreciate it," Whitmer said.

Durlacher was disappointed, but not jump-off-the-Brooklyn-Bridge disappointed – "Wasn't too bad a showing," he said – after Whitmer scored twofirst-period takedowns to go up 4-1.

Wasn't too long afterward that Durlacher was talking to Johnson about the Maccabean Games. He's got a tryout next weekend and can't wait.

"He's handling this well," Johnson said. "He never really gets too down when he loses. If he did, he would have never been able to rebound after his freshman year when hewas 8-22. He keeps coming back."